Poker Players Contribute to Japan Quake Relief

The online poker community is very active when it comes to giving back to the community, and this week has been no different with several poker and poker-related sites displaying generosity in the wake of the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami.

The social networking online games giant Zynga, which this week launched its first Zynga Poker tournament in Las Vegas, announced during a promo for the launch that it had raised $1 million in 36 hours through its Facebook games for earthquake victims and relief.

Zynga has partnered with Save the Children and has asked players to donate their money to Japan quake relief efforts through the purchase of virtual goods on its game sites.

According to reports from various online poker news sites, play virtually came to a stop at the final table of The Big Event in Los Angeles at which several big names in the poker world were competing, including former WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem, so that players could follow the news on the big screens.

Ultimate Bet's Maria Ho promised via Twitter to give away a seat to her weekly $300 buy-in $50,000 guarantee tournament to the first person to send her a picture proving a $10 Red Cross donation. Another player, Justin "BoostedJ" Smith, promised also through a tweet that he would donate $1 for every retweet of his Red Cross text. Follow OCR on Twitter and see their tweets.